The divide in Philippe Garrel’s work, between his abstract ‘60s and ‘70s work and the more conventional style he found in the ‘80s, carries a paradox: as his films became more professional, sometimes almost traditionally narrative and co-written with screenwriters, they also became more self-centered. Occasionally, to a fault. When he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2023, I know I was not alone to think, “Well, of course he acted so badly with women, he spent decades telling us about it.” But, the first part of his career, as experimental and amateurish as it was, seemed way less self-reflective.
Les Hautes Solitudes (1974), shot in black and white, entirely silent, devoid of any credits, and almost non-narrative, is dedicated to faces. It mostly consists of close-ups of actresses’ faces, and it is Jean Seberg whose face is shown throughout most of its runtime. The other actresses in the film are the singer Nico, who was Garrel’s longtime partner, and the French-American actress Tina Aumont, who previously appeared in Garrel’s Le Lit de la Vierge (1970). Three actresses that had a singular relationship with Europe and the United States; three actresses with very different relationships to the history and art of cinema; three actresses with very different facial features, which, in a film consisting mostly of close-ups, is quite important. The French actor Laurent Terzieff also appears, sharing a few scenes with Aumont.
Garrel’s film is, of course, quite difficult to interpret. A very thin storyline seems to emerge, in the way Aumont and Terzieff look at each other, or in a scene where Seberg swallows some pills, but these narrative threads always end up buried away in silence and stillness. The film’s title, which translates to “High Solitudes” in English, might prove helpful in deciphering what it is about: Nico was the lead singer of a mythical rock band, Jean Seberg carried with her the memory of Breathless, and both had to live with a kind of “solitude,” even at the height of their respective careers. Decades later, Les Hautes Solitudes reads as a remembrance of two figures shaded in melancholy who died prematurely. Garrel does not capture how he hurt these women, or how he was hurt by them, as he would in I Don't Hear the Guitar Anymore (1991) and The Phantom Heart (1996), but rather the simple feeling of their presence.
Les Hautes Solitudes screens tonight, April 29, at Anthology Film Archives as part of the series “La fille des étoiles: Tina Aumont.”
